Arthur Hezlet
United Kingdom | branch = Royal Navy | serviceyears =1928–1964 | rank =Vice-admiral | unit = | commands =HMS H44, HMS Unique, HMS Ursula, HMS Upholder, HMS Trident, HMS Trenchant, HMS Newfoundland | battles =World War II *Occupation of Norway | awards =KBE CB DSO and Bar DSC Legion of Merit (United States) Mentioned in Dispatches | laterwork = N.I. president of the Royal British Legion RNLI Member of the general synod of the Church of Ireland council member of the University of Ulster, Author of several books. }} Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Richard "Baldy" Hezlet, KBE, CB, DSO and Bar, DSC, Legion of Merit (United States) (7 April 1914 – 7 November 2007) was a decorated Royal Navy submariner. He became the Royal Navy's youngest captain, aged 36, and its youngest admiral, aged 45. In retirement he became a military historian. Early life Hezlet was born in Pretoria, South Africa,[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7087305.stm Obituary (BBC News)] where his father Major-General RK Hezlet, CB, CBE, DSO, was serving in the British Army. Hezlet joined the Royal Navy in January 1928, aged 13. He attended the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and went to sea in 1932, serving as a midshipman on the battleships [[HMS Royal Oak (08)|HMS Royal Oak]] and [[HMS Resolution (09)|HMS Resolution]]. By 1936, he was the correspondence officer on the destroyer [[HMS Daring (H16)|HMS Daring]], later volunteering to serve on submarines. He served on [[HMS Regulus|HMS Regulus]]. Second World War Hezlet was serving on the submarine [[HMS H43|HMS H43]] at the outbreak of the Second World War, but quickly became First Lieutenant aboard the submarine [[HMS Trident (N52)|HMS Trident]]. By early 1940, he was engaged in operations in the Norwegian Sea, as the Germans launched their occupation of Norway. He was mentioned in dispatches. Following the military disaster in Dunkirk, Trident was re-positioned in the English Channel to assist in repulsing an expected German attempt at invasion of mainland Britain. In 1940, Hezlet passed the "perisher" exam to become a submarine commanding officer, and took command of the obsolete coastal submarine [[HMS H44|HMS H44]] in December.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives He was then sent to Malta as a "spare CO". He commanded the submarine [[HMS Unique (N95)|HMS Unique]], one of the "Fighting" 10th Submarine Flotilla based in Malta from 1941 to 1944. The flotilla helped sink over 1,000,000 tonnes of Axis shipping. Hezlet was awarded the DSC for sinking the 11,000 tonne Italian troopship Esperia. He also commanded [[HMS Ursula (N59)|HMS Ursula]] on six patrols, and [[HMS Upholder (P37)|HMS Upholder]] on one patrol. Hezlet returned to the UK in September 1941, with Ian McGeoch as his first lieutenant, to take command of Trident again. In May 1942, he was involved in protecting convoys to North Russia. He sank the German ore carrier Hoedur, and picked up survivors from sunk merchant vessels. He also operated on the surface as escort vessel for the large convoy PQ16, and was mentioned in dispatches again. He became a special training officer on the banks of the River Clyde in September 1942, at the informally named "HMS Varbel", training the crews of midget submarines to attack the [[German battleship Tirpitz|German battleship Tirpitz]]. He invented the "Hezlet Rail", bar and strap that kept men aboard the vessel. He was mentioned in dispatches after commanding the towing submarine [[HMS Thrasher (N37)|HMS Thrasher]]. Hezlet then took command of the submarine [[HMS Trenchant (P331)|HMS Trenchant]], based at Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He undertook long-range patrols in the Indian and Pacific oceans, earning him his first Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He sunk the long-range German U-boat U-859, on 22 September 1944, near the Sunda Strait, as a result of Enigma intelligence information. The Trenchant also sank numerous Japanese submarine chasers, landing craft, coasters and a minelayer. His crew conducted the last attack by two-man "chariot" submarines, on the Japanese-held harbour of Phuket in Thailand. On 8 June 1945, Hezlet took Trenchant into shallow mined water in the $3 off Sumatra, to intercept [[Japanese cruiser Ashigara|Japanese heavy cruiser Ashigara]]. Despite being attacked by the [[Japanese destroyer Kamikaze (1922)|Japanese destroyer Kamikaze]], five out of eight torpedoes that he fired hit Ashigara, which quickly sank. It was the largest Japanese warship sunk by a Royal Navy warship during the war. Hezlet was ordered to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where he was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit by U.S. Admiral James Fife, Jr.. He was also awarded a bar to his DSO. Ordered to return to the UK, he ended the war as he began it, serving on a submarine. Post-war career After the war, Hezlet attended naval and three-service staff colleges. In 1946, he was one of a small group of Britons permitted to observe the U.S. nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He commanded the destroyer [[HMS Scorpion|HMS Scorpion]], and then served in the Admiralty, and as Chief Staff Officer to the Flag Officer Submarines, before taking command of the destroyer [[HMS Battleaxe (D118)|HMS Battleaxe]] and becoming Captain D of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla in 1955. In 1956, Hezlet was appointed as Director of the Naval Staff College at Greenwich. After commanding the cruiser [[HMS Newfoundland (59)|HMS Newfoundland]], he was appointed as Flag Officer Submarines and promoted to rear admiral in 1959, aged 45, a post he held for 3 years. The submarine [[HMS Dreadnought (S101)|HMS Dreadnought]], Britain's first nuclear attack submarine, was launched in early 1960. The task of the Flag Officer Submarines was to help formulate plans for support and training facilities in a force as yet unfamiliar with nuclear propulsion. He was also in office later that year, when the preferred option for the UK's nuclear deterrent moved from the air-launched Skybolt missile to the Polaris missile launched by ballistic missile submarines. He was appointed CB in 1961. Hezlet's final tour was Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland (FOSNI). He was promoted to vice-admiral and appointed KBE before his retirement in 1964. Later life Hezlet returned to his family home, Bovagh House, at Aghadowey in County Londonderry. He was Northern Ireland president of the Royal British Legion for 25 years. He also served with the RNLI, a member of the general synod of the Church of Ireland, and was an original council member of the University of Ulster. He was a keen yachtsman, and his yacht Agivey was a familiar sight on the coast of Ireland and Scotland. He was appointed High Sheriff of County Londonderry for 1968. Hezlet died at Bovagh, at the age of 93, in 2007. He was survived by his wife, Anne Joan Patricia Clark whom he married in 1948, and their two daughters. Writings In retirement, Hezlet wrote many books on naval matters. His first book, The Submarine and Sea Power (1967), foresaw the continuing invulnerability of the seaborne nuclear deterrent. In Aircraft and Sea Power (1970), he took the view that the Atlantic could be defended by land-based aircraft and submarines, with no surface vessels. Hezlet also wrote a history of the Ulster Special Constabulary, the "B Specials", in 1972. He reviewed the use of electricity and electronics in naval warfare in The Electron and Sea Power (1976). He published a memoir, HMS Trenchant at War: from Chatham to the Banka Strait, in 2001, and his last book, the authoritative History of British and Allied Submarine Operations (2002), listed every patrol taken by an Allied submarine in the Second World War. References *[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2834675.ece Obituary (Times Online)] *[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/09/db0901.xml Obituary (Daily Telegraph)] External links *Radio Room *[http://www.biblio.com/books/130315529.html Aircraft and Sea Power by Sir Arthur Hezlet] Category:1914 births Category:2007 deaths Category:People from County Londonderry Category:People from Pretoria Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Royal Navy submarine commanders Category:Royal Navy officers of World War II Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Category:Foreign recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order and Bar Category:Order of Saint Olav Category:British academics Category:High Sheriffs of County Londonderry Category:Anglicans from Northern Ireland Category:Place of death missing Category:British naval historians